SUBMARINE TORPEDO TUBES.
239
Fig. 791, and Figs. 792 to 794, Plate CXXXVL, show
one of these installations complété. It contains a large
number of special piping and fittings, the principal ones
only having been referred to.
Schneider-Canet Submarine Tube, with Mechanical
Working Guide (Figs. 795 to 798).—In this pattern
the guide is worked mechanically, no hydraulic machinery
being resorted to. When the ship is being navigated,
the tube contains the guide ; this is provided with
two grooves, which are extended in the thickness of the
tube walls, and serve as slides for the tenons on the torpedo.
The spoon-shaped extension is provided at its lower part
with a rack, in which a pinion engages, worked either by
hånd or mechanically, the pinion being placed in a recess
on the tube. The principal fittings are the following : The
front closing valve V, the breech-cover. two automatic
working latches, one to limit the forward travel ot' the tube,
the other holding the torpedo in the tube when it has
been placed ready for firing ; the torpedo is held besicles
by a screwed plug that goes through the breech-cover.
The mechanism is the same as that of the preceding
pattern.
When the torpedo is in place and the breech-door
closed, water enters the tube as soon as the valve V is
opened. The extension guide is then released to the limit
j of its travel, by turning the pinion which gears in its rack.
I When the accumulator is connectée! with the rear of the
J tube, the latch that holds the torpedo is disengaged auto-
| matically, and the torpedo is driven forward. When
launched, the extension guide is brought back in the tube,
the front valve is closed, and the tube is emptied, ready for
another operation.